DIY Recipes & Hacks: Can You Grind Coffee in a Magic Bullet?

The Magic Bullet was the first single-serve personal blender before the Nutribullet 600 and 900. If you look closely, the mini blender is usually relatively smaller in size and power than either. But can you still use it in as many culinary tasks as its cousins? More specifically, can you grind coffee in a magic bullet?

First things first, the Magic Bullet can perform as many tasks as Nutribullet or Nutri Ninja and other compact personal blenders.

There’s no denying the 250-watt motor is about half to a quarter of what we have in its closest rivals. But it’s still enough to use the blender for smoothies, grind nuts for butter, and make a milkshake with ice, amongst other tough tasks.

The said “other tough tasks” include to grind coffee beans into a fine or coarser ground for a fresh brew. You only have to make sure you use your magic bullet blender right, else you end up ruining your recipe and the machine.

Points To Remember Before You Grind Coffee in a Magic Bullet

Technically, a blender like Oster or Vitamix with a high-performance motor is the best to work on whole coffee beans. When dry, the beans have a pretty hard shell and walls that are not easy to break through, particularly for basic blenders.

In many cases, these basic budget blenders usually don’t have the most appealing features. A perfect example is our Magic Bullet with:

• A 250-watt motor, which, of course, has a high torque and spins the tiny blades very fast. But it lacks the premium quality to handle tough tasks daily, as with high-power blenders.
• An Internal thermal breaker with a limited overheating and overloading timeout. Magic Bullet is actually against blending continuously for more than one minute. Once the breaker kicks in and the blender suddenly stops working, you’ll have to wait at least 15 minutes to cool.
• A Plastic drive gear, which, even when tough, isn’t as sturdy and durable as its metal counterpart. The material isn’t ideal if you plan to use the blender for dry ingredients daily.
• No control panel or physical buttons to operate the compact blender. You’ll have to use the cup to enable your desired blending mode.
• Pulse & continuous blending modes are both available even when the Magic Bullet doesn’t have physical buttons. So, you can achieve fine and coarse coffee grounds
• A (cross) Chopping & a (flat) milling blade are usually available with the Mini blender. You should use the latter for the milling and grinding tasks.
• The 12-oz & 18-oz blending cups provided are also worth considering when you grind coffee in a Magic Bullet. The slender surface area means the ingredients may take a while to reach the spinning blade. Thus, you should process your beans in small batches.

A Step-by-Step Guide on How You Can Grind Coffee in a Magic Bullet?

What You Need

• Coffee Beans
• Magic Bullet
• (Flat) Milling blade

What You Need to Do:

In a nutshell, it’s pretty straightforward to grind coffee beans into a blender of any kind.  But when working with a Magic Bullet:

Step 1: Roast your Coffee Beans

The first step of our task will be to roast the coffee beans if you purchased the unroasted batch. It helps bring the oils to the surface and decrease the moisture content, which not only enhances flavor and color. But also improve the brittleness for easier fracturing as you grind.

You should roast the coffee beans at a heat of 350°F (180°C), either in the oven, cooking pan/ skillet, coffee machine, or grill. And once done, let it rest for a while before grinding to release the produced carbon and keep your drink from being bitter.

Step 2: Prepare our Magic Bullet

Once your roasted coffee beans have cooled down enough, prepare your Magic Bullet for grinding. Rinse the blending cups, then wipe them dry with a clean (dry) dish rag.

Step 3: Pour the Roasted Coffee into the Cup

Now, pour some of the roasted coffee beans into the 12-ounce or 18-ounce Magic Bullet cups. Add until the halfway level of the cups so the beans can have enough space to spin and blend faster.

And once you’ve loaded the ingredients, twist the (flat) milling blade on the mouth of the cup until you have a secure, tight seal.

Step 4: Mount the Cup onto the Motor Base

Next, turn your Magic Bullet cup with coffee beans over and place it on the power base- make sure you line up the tabs. Then press down the cup from the top to turn on the motor and initiate blending.

Step 5: Pulse or Blend the Mixture Continuously

If the idea is to grind coffee for French Press, the final ground should have a coarse consistency. So, you’ll want to blend your mixture in “Pulse” mode.

But since a Magic Bullet doesn’t have a dedicated pulse button, you can only blend in short intervals in a push-and-release approach. That’s when the cup is on the power base, press it (blending cup) down as you quickly release.

If the idea is to grind a fine ground coffee for an Espresso drip machine, you can set your Magic Bullet on the “Lock on”/ mode. You just need to press down on the cup, then gently turn it clockwise until its tabs lock to those on the lip of the motor base.

The Lock-On mode lets your blender run continuously, thereby will also offer hands-free operation.

Step 6: Transfer your Ground Coffee for a Brew & Storage

Once the desired consistency is achieved, release the blending cup to turn off the motor. If you had enabled the “Lock-On” mode, you’ll want to turn the cup back counter-clockwise to disengage the locking tabs.

Next, unscrew the blade system and confirm you have all coffee grounded and no whole beans remain. Then pour some amount into the carafe and brew yourself a light or strong drink to jam-start your day or night.

As for the ground coffee that remains, transfer it to an airtight storage container/s to prevent excessive oxidation. Also, make sure you keep these jars at a cool temperature, away from heat or even direct light to delay the staling process.

Commonly Asked Questions

Grinding Coffee in a Magic Bullet isn’t Always Magical

Well, that’s how you can grind coffee in a Magic Bullet at home or even right from your camping van. It’s pretty handy if you want to enjoy a fresh brew and don’t have a dedicated coffee grinder or don’t want to use the over-processed stuff in the supermarket.

Even so, the coffee grinder is still the best machine to grind coffee. When you use the Magic Bullet or any other blender for that matter, the coarse ground for the Press machine will have inconsistent texture. And while it might not be a big deal, the final drink will have an unbalance flavor that a die-hard coffee person can identify.

Secondly, the Magic Bullet is a blending tool with sharp blades that are especially for total pulverization. If you accidentally over-grind your coffee beans into a super-fine powder, the resultant particles will stick and clump together. So, when you brew, the drink ends up tasting lumpy and gritty.

For this reason, I’d personally recommend using the “Pulse” mode when you grind coffee in a Magic Bullet. It’ll give you control over your mixture and also minimize chances of overheating the motor- which is very probable on “Lock-On” mode.